FARC vs Colombian State: it's over, over there

[CyberRose]

Bit of a strange 'article' from the main English language newspaper in Colombia just now...

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-reports-bias-vested-interest-farc-peace-deal/

 

[Brainaddict]

Bit of a strange 'article' from the main English language newspaper in Colombia just now...

Colombia Reports' bias and vested interest in the FARC peace deal

I know the guy (I lived in Medellin for a couple of months), and perhaps he's struggling with the stress of writing about what's just happened, but it's a comment piece, not an article, and I think he's just trying to be honest. Outbreaks of violence in Colombia are all to common and the violence can be extreme. It seems pretty likely that a 'No' to the peace agreement could spark further conflict, including emboldening right wing death squads - many of the paramilitaries see themselves as enforcers for the political positions of the far right Colombian elite. I imagine it feels rather scary right now. At the same time he has quite a big US readership, many of them fairly right wing and opposed to the peace deal (on the grounds it conceded too much to communists basically), so he feels he has to explain why CR isn't being entirely even-handed - and can't be really. Myself I would have said fuck the US right wingers and why bother to explain anything to them, but he has a traditional journalistic background and feels more need to address the issue of 'balance' in reporting.

 

[CyberRose]

I know the guy (I lived in Medellin for a couple of months), and perhaps he's struggling with the stress of writing about what's just happened

Yea I picked up a bit of that in their latest article and have seen before on Facebook that they might not release articles for a while as their staff were being followed by paramilitaries, almost like they wanted everyone to know the situation as a kind of insurance policy in case anything happened.

They're based in Medellín, home of Uribe and his paramilitary supporters...

 

[Brainaddict]

Yeah, when I asked him why he was in Medellin he said it was the good weather. And fair enough, the weather in Bogota is shit, but still, after a couple of months in Medellin I ran. The reason why can be summed up with a little anecdote. I was on a sort of/not really date with a woman from the city. A nice middle class woman from a nice middle class background. Inevitably the topic of politics came up, and it turned out she was an Uribe supporter. Not that surprising in Medellin but then I asked if the mass graves left in the jungle by his paramilitaries didn't bother her at all (you can probably tell I'd given up already on the idea of it being a date). And the amazing thing was she didn't deny it had happened or that Uribe was behind it, as I had expected her to. She just said "Yes, but a leader needs to be strong."

Which was when I realised that Uribismo was borderline fascist and I was in the wrong city. I left for Bogota and its shitty weather and vastly better politics not long after

 

[Brainaddict]

I should say for those who don't know that the weather in Bogota is *relatively* shit. It's basically English weather with a bit more sun and no frosts. So it depends on your tolerance for English weather surprisingly close to the equator.

 

[classicdish]

bumped for:

BBC Two - Colombia with Simon Reeve

(20 days left to watch)

their blurb:

"Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to one of the most spectacular countries in the world - Colombia. For 50 years, Colombia has been in the grip of a brutal civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced seven million. But in late 2016, a peace deal was signed promising to end the conflict and finally bring peace to the country. In this hour-long documentary for the award-winning This World strand, Simon explores Colombia at a pivotal point in its history. He travels into the jungle and comes face to face with the guerrilla army FARC, which is now promising to lay down arms. In the Pacific coast city of Buenaventura, Simon finds out more about the fearsome right-wing paramilitary gangs who now dominate the cocaine trade. As the FARC abandon the countryside, there is a fear that these groups will only grow in power. Travelling in the countryside, Simon meets the coca farmers who are demanding government support to stop growing coca and stop the flow of money to criminal gangs. With land ownership, poverty and drugs at the heart of Colombia's problems, it is in the countryside that the country's precarious future will be decided."

My blurb: Great scenary/visuals, some good interviews with a whole range of people (incl. FARC commander Mauricio Jaramillo) and an action shot of a gold-digging machine being blown up. While doing the normal BBC thing of being "balanced", it does end up pointing the finger at inequality and poverty being the underlying driver of conflict.

edit

 

[DaveCinzano]

Uh oh

Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group said a Russian-Armenian citizen it held hostage for six months was killed in April while trying to escape, a startling admission that risks throwing current peace talks with the government into jeopardy.

In a rare interview, a commander of the National Liberation Army, Colombia’s last active guerrilla group, said that ransoms from kidnappings were necessary to keep its fighters in the field and that peace would be impossible without state funding to feed and clothe the rebels.

Exclusive - Colombia's ELN says it killed Russian hostage; risks peace talks with government

 

[butchersapron]

Colombia ex-Farc rebel Iván Márquez issues call to arms

A former commander in the Farc rebel group in Colombia, Iván Márquez, has called on his followers to take up arms less than three years after the rebels signed a peace agreement with the government.

Iván Márquez appeared in a video and announced that a "new phase of the armed struggle" was beginning.

He was one of the main negotiators of the peace deal in 2016.

The Colombian government said it was "a very worrying announcement".

...

He is surrounded by about a dozen men and women dressed in camouflage. Among them are two other senior former Farc rebels, Jesús Santrich, and the man known as El Paisa.

 

[Brainaddict]

Pretty grim but not surprising at the point. The government can't make a peace deal, fail to keep to it, then expect the other side to stick to it.